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HOMEBREW parkerizing

Anybody make their own manganese parkerizing solution?

I have used the zinc parkering solution from Brownells, but now want the darker charcoal to black color. I have experience doing this and have the necessary equipoment and familar with the techniques and procedures.

A one gallon solution that makes 5 gallons from Brownells\Midwayusa is about $40at the minimum after shipping.

I am looking at the recipe found on various places using Jasco Prep and Prime (phosphoric acid) and manganese dioxide (either alakline batteries or pottery shop).

The recipe is: 1 ounce Jasco, 1 ounce manganese dioxide powder, 1 gallon of distilled water, and the steel wool biscuit.
I have also seen the same recipe varied at 2 ounces of Jasco with 2 ounces of manganese dioxide to the one gallon of water.

Anybody have first hand experience to this recipe or other homemade parkerizing solutions?

A quart of Jasco from Ace runs about $9 and the manganese would be about $5 from cheapo dollar store batteries. So the cost difference would be quite a bit comppared to the $40 variety. I would have enough materials to make many gallons in the future.

Dick Culver had a nice write up online a few years back about home parkerizing and made it look simple. It was the Manganese Phosphate type with distilled water and as steel wool pad like you are talking about. The parts came out a nice even Charcoal black color. He made it look "easy bake oven" simple!

I used the home brew (Jasco and batteries) recipe and reported good results on an AK board years ago. Several guys tried to duplicate my results but were unsuccessful. Not sure what was the problem, but it seemed they had difficulty getting the ratios right. IIRC, I had better luck with new batteries than dead batteries.

I have since shifted to using Jasco to etch, followed by Brownells Oxphoblue to darken, followed by a light coat of flat black Molyresin if I want a parked look, or Guncoat gun metal blue for an aged blue look.

People sometimes tell me they dont own guns because guns are too expensive. I tell them guns dont cost anything. They are essentially another form of currency.